Maine Morality Isn't

Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Psalm 85:10

I don’t know if you’ve ever thought of that verse from the Psalms as a guide for social action but maybe it is worth considering. Especially now that a people of decency and honor are forced to once again thwart the ongoing onslaught of our immoral leaders in Augusta. You should know by now that Gov. Baldacci signed into law a piece of legislation that is terribly misleading. It is touted as a bill to outlaw discrimination against people who believe they are homosexual. The battle cry is always couched in terms of being denied housing, loans, and jobs when the reality of the situation is that there is no way anyone would ever know about someone’s sexual orientation since there is nothing on of the forms that would ask such a thing. Furthermore, the per capita income of homosexuals is more, much more than the per capita income of heterosexuals. So the whole anti-discrimination language is a crock. But it’s worse than that and this is what many do not know.

There is already a hate crimes law on the books passed in 2001 in which certain conduct towards homosexuals is outlawed. So why is Baldacci’s new law necessary?

Well first, this is just a step to the legalization of civil unions and or homosexual marriage which I assure you will follow. But the Governor’s new bill also singles out gender identity. Which means that if you think you are a woman and you’re a man, you can use the women’s restrooms if you so desire and no one can say anything about it. So if you think you don’t want to discriminate against anyone, remember two things; 1. No one is being discriminated against and 2. When you are out with your daughter, granddaughter or wife and they have to go to the bathroom, they just may run into a man in the bathroom, or someone in drag putting on their makeup and you have no right to say anything for if you do, that would constitute a hate crime.

So as we go forth into the moral morass of our degenerate culture, remember righteousness and peace have kissed each other which means, among other things, we can stand for truth and morality in a powerful but peaceful way. Our role in the world is still redemptive; let us not forget that!

Boston Globe in Hot Water--AGAIN

Well the Boston Globe has done it again; the newspaper whose motto ought to be, “If we want it to be true, it might as well be, even if it isn’t.”
Seems Barbara Stewart, a free lance reporter for the Globe wrote a graphic and detailed account of the annual baby seal harvest taking place in Canada. Like a good reporter she gave the number of hunters and described the waters turning red with the blood of these little animals as brutal and inhumane hunters used harpoons to mercilessly spear these little cubs by the hundreds. There was one little snag, okay, two little snags, in her report. The first was she was in Halifax rather than at the scene which the Globe not only knew but approved. Nobody would have been any the wiser accept for the second little snag. Because of foul weather, the hunt was cancelled until a later date.

That’s right, this ace Globe reporter, reported, with all the gory details, a seal hunt that hadn’t taken place. Oops, or should I say, “Oops again.” Remember the fake pictures from Iraq the Globe ran with and of course the scandal with Jason Blair at the New York Times which happens to be the parent company of the Boston Globe. The Globe’s comment about Stewart was, “The author's failure to accurately report the status of the hunt and her fabrication of details at the scene are clear violations of the Globe's journalistic standards.”
One of the Globe’s Editors, “James Smith said that the newspaper knew Stewart was not at the seal hunt and was doing her reporting from Halifax. "What she told us -- and we did check during the day -- was that she had confirmed with one of the fishermen in the story that it was going ahead," adding that in retrospect the paper should have worked harder to clarify this.” Ya think?
What was the Globe’s statement again, “The author's failure to accurately report the status of the hunt and her fabrication of details at the scene are clear violations of the Globe's journalistic standards.” On the contrary, I would say she exemplified the standards of the Globe and the Times, it just kind of blew up in their face--again.
I don’t know which is scarier; that this sort of stuff goes on or that there are people out there who truly believe that even though the story was fake, it was “an accurate of what could happen” so what’s the big deal?
Once again, the casualty is truth as relativism reigns supreme! Thank God, He is not so inclined!

Health Insurance Reimbursment for New Rx. Called FOOD

I’ve been thinking about the execution of Terri Schiavo and probably will for some time; I believe we will now be faced with this more and more now that the lid on Pandora’s box has been sprung. Sure this has been done for ages but it’s been kept in the shadows. Now that it is brought into the light of day with the imprimatur of those hallowed, omniscient beings in black robes, watch what happens. You know I never made this connection before but I think I might understand why they are cloaked in black.

The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, editor in chief of the catholic journal “First Things,” wrote, "Thousands of ethicists and bioethicists, as they are called, professionally guide the unthinkable on its passage through the debatable on its way to becoming the justifiable, until it is finally established as the unexceptional."

With the killing of Schiavo, we have passed the first three mile-stones Neuhaus mentions. Euthanasia was unthinkable, it has been debatable and it just became justifiable. All that remains now is for it to occur repeatedly, which it certainly will, until it becomes a yawn. Then we will know that it has become unexceptional. It’s only a matter of time.

But I was also thinking of the way language has been twisted to shape the agenda in our burgeoning culture of death. I have heard Ms. Schiavo’s nourishment of food and water referred to as artificial means, extraordinary measures, and artificial life support. I find this to have curious, though unintended repercussions on health insurance companies country-wide.

Since food and water is now considered “life support” shouldn’t health insurance companies be required to pay for what are obvious medical necessities? And since feeding a compromised individual is now considered “extraordinary means,” it seems perfectly consistent that expenses incurred by families with newborns, day care and care givers whose responsibility it is to feed these compromised ones, also be reimbursed under your typical health care policy.

Hey this could be a real financial windfall!

When Government Ceases it's God Ordained Role

When is a government not a government? When it chooses to ignore the voice of its constituents not once but twice, spits in the voter’s faces, and surreptitiously puts into law what the voters of Maine have already removed, not once but twice. While some might pride themselves on their political prowess having accomplished this oligarchical show of force, I see it as the breakdown of a civil society.

Maine’s Gov. John Baldacci recently approved legislation to amend the state's Human Rights Act to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation – giving sexual orientation the same respect as such innate characteristics as race, color, sex, disability, ancestry and national origin.

Focus on the Family says, “The law assumes that sexual orientation is immutable and innate, yet thousands of men and women across the country have walked away from their unwanted same-sex attractions.”

This new law really does little if anything to stop discrimination against homosexuals because there really wasn’t anything there to stop. As a matter of fact, a statistical analysis of homosexual lifestyles reveals that they are not only better off, but FAR better off (three times so) than the average Maine family. That is hardly the profile of an oppressed class of people.

What the law insures is that now a man who thinks he is a woman, may go into a public restroom with your wife, or your daughter. This is perfectly legal, and we must not “discriminate” based on sexual orientation so vaguely defined in the law that whatever you think you are at the moment; that is what you are.

So while I was personally resigned to sitting this one out, I went to the capital, observed the climate and knew that I could not stay on the sidelines, and neither can you! We may lose this one this time around; but we cannot lose do due to apathy. We are standard bearers and culture preservers for our children and grandchildren who right now can do nothing about the way their future is shaping up.

Civil Disobedience--Right or Wrong?

Alas, another disturbing story emanating from the dark macabre shadows of our culture of death.
Tony Perkins of Focus on the Family writes, “In another tragic story of a minor forced to have an abortion against her or her parents' wishes, a 14-year-old Illinois girl was taken out of school by the mother of the girl's boyfriend and brought to Hope Abortion Clinic in Granite City, Illinois. The older woman told the clinic she was the grandmother — a statement strangely true, although she was the grandmother of the child she had the clinic kill.
What is especially troubling about this story is that the girl's mother discovered where her daughter was and rushed down to the clinic to save her daughter from the abortion. The clinic refused to give her access to her daughter and called the police, who arrested the frantic mother. The idea that a clinic and law enforcement officials would deny a parent's legal and moral right to be with her daughter in such a difficult and life-changing moment is outrageous.”
No it’s not outrageous; it is criminal. And what is disturbing is that as we get further and further away from a civil society governed by the masses rather than by a handful of judges or politicians, we are going to be faced with some hard choices. Choices that may very well challenge our faith foundations and our American foundations.
If the role of government biblically, according to Romans chapter 13, is to constrain evil, and it not only doesn’t constrain evil but facilitates or mandates it, is the Christian allowed or even obligated in a structure such as ours to defy that structure? I believe constitutionally that is clear—we do. But that doesn’t mean the government will permit such defiance and more important, is such defiance permitted, or even obligated biblically?
Today I’m only asking the questions. One day, sooner than later, we’ll have to come to grips with the answers.

Schiavo is Dead

Well, Terri Schiavo is dead; murdered at the hands of an arrogant judiciary with an ineffective congress as accessories to murder. Our nation just took a fateful step joining the Netherlands as a country which has officially adopted a policy of euthanasia. Speaking of which, that is an interesting word, but more on that in a minute.

David Brooks writing for the New York Times had a thoughtful piece in last week. I appreciated his approach to some weighty issues but found them wanting.

One thing he wrote was, “…most of us believe in transcendence, in life beyond this one. Therefore why is it so necessary to cling ferociously to this life? Why not allow the soul to ascend to whatever is in store for it?”

This is an excellent point if some notion of universalism, which says--everyone goes to heaven--holds sway. But Christianity defeats any notion of universalism.

Jesus said, "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it." Matthew 7:13-14

So euthanasia, which comes from the Greek meaning “good-death,” is anything but for the non-Christian if the Bible is true, which we know it is. That alone seems enough for the Christian to oppose the implementation of any state sponsored notion of a “good death.” But additionally, if it is, as the Bible states in Hebrews, “appointed unto man to die once and after this comes judgment,” to preserve the unregenerate, though compromised, living is an act of compassion beyond measure. At the end of the day, self-determination is simply not our prerogative. Ah but there’s more to come; there’s always more to come when we seek to plumb the depths of God’s rich counsel.